Senate blocks Labor Board nominee

Labor lawyer Craig Becker's nomination for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board failed on Tuesday afternoon, as a few Senate Democrats joined a unified Republican front to block a key Obama White House nomination. The vote was 52-33 — 60 votes were required to proceed on the nomination. The stalled nomination is a blow to labor unions and showed fractures in the Senate Democratic Caucus, which can no longer rely on a 60-vote supermajority.

Fifteen senators missed the vote when it became clear that Becker would fall well short of the 60 needed to break a filibuster.

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Becker has been nominated for a seat on the National Labor Relations Board, and he has strong union backing, but Republicans and a few conservative Democrats complained he was too cozy with Big Labor. The failure to get 60 votes on a procedural motion leaves the nomination stalled, and President Barack Obama has threatened to bypass the Senate and make a recess appointment if certain nominees are not confirmed.

The vote to block Becker was also the first real show of unity by the 41-seat Republican minority — newly elected Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) voted against Becker's nomination. But Republicans got some help from Democrats, as Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Sen. Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas — who faces a tough reelection fight — voted against Becker.

Some Senate Democrats were upset that the GOP was able to pull off another filibuster.

"I'm frustrated. I'm unhappy with it," said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). "I hear them on the floor saying we shouldn't rush this. It's been 10 months. The Senate Republicans are the only people in the United States of America who think it should take more than 10 months to give us the option to vote up or down on a nominee who is clearly qualified."

Becker had come under fire earlier this month in his confirmation hearings for making statements many in the GOP considered too strongly aligned with union interests. The opposition to Becker's seating on the NLRB also is tied into larger Republican opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act — a bill that would make it easier for employees to unionize and the progress of which has come to a standstill in the Senate in the face of GOP criticism.

“Mr. Becker’s previous statements strongly indicate that he would take an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB and that he would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the administration," Nelson said in a statement Monday. “This is of great concern, considering that the board’s main responsibility is to resolve labor disputes with an even and impartial hand." Becker's nomination was also contested by business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, which lobbied actively against him.

The NLRB — which is supposed to have five members but has been staffed by only two — oversees issues pertaining to union elections and some labor disputes.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, is already pushing for Obama to make a recess appointment for Becker.

"It is reprehensible that a minority in the U.S. Senate has blocked an up-or-down vote on Craig Becker, nominated seven months ago by President Obama to serve on the National Labor Relations Board," Trumka said in a statement. "Once again, a Republican-led filibuster has put political interests over the needs of America’s working families."

After the late afternoon vote, senators rushed to leave the Capitol complex as the first flakes fell in a snowstorm that is shutting down much of Washington and has put Wednesday's session in doubt.